Garrett James photo

After being pushed to overtime in three of the five games in the Ontario Junior A Lacrosse League championship series, the Orangeville Northmen enjoyed a blowout victory.

The Orangemen scored seven times in the first period as they cruised to a 12-1 win over the Victoria Shamrocks in Friday’s first game of the 2019 Minto Cup Junior A Championship at Langley Events Centre.

Rylan Hartley – named the most valuable player of the OJALL playoffs – did not miss a beat, stopping 43 of 44 shots before heading to the bench midway through the third period.

For the first 9:27 of Friday’s game, it was just 1-0 Northmen but Orangeville’s offense got on track scoring four goals in a 2:13 span to break the game wide open.

The Northmen tacked on two more before the period let out and the rout was on.

“We hit our spots, they didn’t. We got into a rhythm early which was nice and our goaltender was really solid which skewed things a bit,” said Northmen coach Bruce Codd.

Dating back to the five games of the OJALL championship series, Hartley has posted an .889 save percentage.

“You could tell from the time we got here that he was focusing on tonight’s game and was ready. Obviously that gives everyone confidence when he is seeing the ball like he was tonight,” the coach added.

The Shamrocks finally solved Hartley at the 4:16 mark of the second period. But that was it for the Victoria offence while Orangeville added two more in the second period and then the game’s only three goals of the third period.

“They outplayed us. We didn’t come to work and that’s what happens,” summed up Victoria coach Terry Dennett. “We have a pretty young squad and I think we will be resilient, but we have to learn from the mistakes we made today.”

Dylan Watson led Orangeville with four goals and he was one of three Northmen with five points, alongside Johnathan Donville (three goals, two assists) and Ty Thompson (two goals, three assists).

Dawson Tait and Chris Butka each finished with four helpers while Sam Firth had a goal and three assists.

Zach Manns had the lone Victoria goal and earned his team’s player of the game award.

Hartley earned the honour for the Northmen.

Victoria battles the Okotoks Raiders on Saturday at 4 p.m. while Orangeville takes on the Coquitlam Adanacs at 7 p.m.